What extinct Hi Fi manufacture do you miss the most?

Yetizone posted:

I also miss Nytech as the CA202 was my first ever decent amp, bettered by the Nait2 but not by a huge margin IIRC. I'm not sure how the new Nytech (phoenix) company are doing, but I am curious about revisiting that brand.

Anyone remember Linx Audio? I had one of their Quasar amps and it was darned expensive at the time (for me) at circa £500. I remember it was great fun. A really powerful, refined, yet still exciting sounding integrated amp - a Supernait of its day perhaps. Had it a couple of years then it developed a few source switching issues and traded it in for a Naim pre / power set up. Linx had a distinct design for the time, the facia made of high gloss black perspex with red LED's covered by flush selection switches, which I still think looks fresh and contemporary today - and it could be argued, not too far removed from Rega's current design language. I think they also made Pre / Power mono blocks as well, but I have no experience of them.

I had a Linx power-amp in the above case style, that I matched to an Audiolab 800A (as pre) and later an Audiolab 8000Q.  Lots of power. One channel blew and I couldn't get it repaired. One guy who examined the internals told me it was a rather crude design; a New Zealand design I believe.

PCD, Yes, I knew that Nytech had risen from the ashes and were based in South Wales, but have not (yet) heard any of the new kit. Sound quality aside, I like the industrial design aesthetic, the wooden cheeks give the new boxes a certain dealer shelf individuality compared to endless rows of black / silver boxes.

Richard, Ah, I'd forgotten about the Theta! Yes, agree, at the time I thought the Quasar sounded amazing and would have kept hold of it, but reliability was the issue.

MDS, Its not a surprise to read that you had a channel outage, I remember my then dealer stating Linx units were plagued with reliability problems and many were returned to Linx HQ. For me it became a lottery as to which selector would work. Choose Phono and I would suddenly be listening to the Tuner, then to the Tape Deck, then back to the Tune again, etc. Infuriating! The dealer then suggested I listen to Naim - hello 62 / 140. Game over really.

Christopher_M posted:

Chartwell (How could I have let my LS3/5as go?)

Well you're in luck. They're back, thanks to Graham Audio, and better than ever, apparently.

Celestion with those Ditton 66s followed by the Garrard 301 and  Studer- Revox as it was back in reel to reel days.

Mana - not for any nostalgic reasons but more for amusement. Some setups took things just a bit too far....

Allante93 posted:

 

Those were the days! 

Wine, Roses, and Music! 

Allante93! 

680 I suppose. Great decks!

Agree - the Systemdek IIX was a superb TT and there's nothing quite like a set of Flat Earth 'Briks at full chat, despite their compromises.

Are Voyd still going? They made some interesting decks.

I'll never forget hearing Yello's The Race through "The Voyd" turntable, powered by Audio Innovations Pre / Mono block tube amps into Impulse H2's at the dealer home of Kevin Scott (lived round the corner from him when I was a student) of Definitive Audio fame. Breathtaking. 

Celestion, fond memories. 

Yes, in fact I just bought a Systemdek IIX 900 with acrilic platter and separate power supply... in excellent condition.

It comes with a Rega RB 300 (with mods) but I wonder if it can take my heavy SME 309 on a proper armboard?

Another IIX 900 owner here (Heed Orbit PS and Audiomods RB300 based arm). Still a great sounding TT.

Another TT company that has since gone downhill. Beautifully made and solid as rock!

A TT that I always liked was the Source.

Regards,

Lindsay

Gale TT and chrome end speakers to match the Lecson amps please.

Richard Dane posted:

Nakamichi.

Back in the early '80s as a young student in the States I quickly discovered that Nakamichi was the name in Cassette decks. You didn't have to be an audiophile to know that the best tape decks in the world were made by Nakamichi - they were the best and nobody was going to argue with that. If you wanted to swap Dead bootlegs then it had to be recorded on Maxell UD XLII or XLII-S on a Nakamichi, otherwise it just wasn't good enough - despite the fact that really the performance of a Nakamichi was somewhat wasted on what were often fairly lo-fi multi-generational dubs taken from what were fairly ropey masters

+ 100

And Richard... this reply takes me back to the day. Searching for the holy grail... the ever elusive GD taper who had access to low gen tapes. I actually found one and was able to penetrate the veil. I gave him 2 boxes of Maxell XL II-S's and 2 or 3 weeks later received the tapes back, filled with 1st and 2nd generation recordings of Dead shows from a variety of eras (including some analogue masters from recent shows he had taped via DAT... all the rage in the early 90's). I spent hours turning the J sleeves into little works of art while listening.

His analogue rig consisted of 2 Nakamichi Dragons... I think his DAT rig was a Denon, but I could be wrong about that.

I parlayed a few such exchanges with him into trades with others and ultimately acquired over 1000 hours of low gen GD goodness... I had a wall of recorded live shows. I've since done away with those tapes... no need given the steady stream of live stuff coming out of the GD vault. But I did keep about 10 of my favourite recordings ... they are in my basement... need to dig them up as I always planned on putting them in my music room as a reminder of a bygone era. Maybe I'll go look for them now :-)

Wouldn't have pegged you as someone with a high GD IQ btw.

Another vote for the much-missed Nakamichi. State-of-the-art engineering on the tape decks (still have my Dragon, which is still going strong):

Some of the stuff was a bit over-engineered to the point of daftness, like the legendary TX1000 turntable, which aimed to compensate for off-centre records:

I've always liked Sansui - that was a good brand, among the best-designed of 1970s Japanese hi-fi, and good quality too. I have a mate who has a 40-year-old Sansui receiver, a Micro Sekei TT and Tannoy speakers and it sounds great. Here's one of Sansui's flagship tuners, the TU-9900:

Don't forget their power amps: 

Tangent loudspeakers. I had a pair of TM1s from 1977 until 2014.

After my Pioneer 512 I had an Ariston RD 80 TT.  Had it for 18 years until the motor died - superb.  

Kevin-W posted:

I've always liked Sansui - that was a good brand, among the best-designed of 1970s Japanese hi-fi, and good quality too. I have a mate who has a 40-year-old Sansui receiver, a Micro Sekei TT and Tannoy speakers and it sounds great. Here's one of Sansui's flagship tuners, the TU-9900:

Kevin,

I was always dying to have one their flagships tuners but I could afford only their mi-grade:

It was a great model with an exceptional transparent sound. Physically that was the largest electronic component in my set-up including the Quad amp.

Peter W posted:

SAE.......Those handles, LEDs and levers...........

Their most popular item in the 1970s which a lot of my friends used was their equalizer:

By the way, the company is alive and kicking. This is their current mega-amp :

Hungryhalibut posted:

Mana maniacs? 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I rest my case. 

Armstrong 521 integrated amp ................. part of my first "proper" hi fi .................. a great little amp in it's day.

Followed by this :

Ferrograph 307 integrated amp ....................... I don't miss it at all ................they should have stuck to making reel to reel tape decks.